On30 thoughts

For the remainder of the week I will be devoting my time to finishing some HO ultra light weight 2'x4' modules. We have started a module club and I need to get caught up on the modules I promised to deliver.

This winter I hope to finish my 2x6' On30 modular layout. (Consisting of 3ea 2'x6' modules to start) Same design as the HO 2x6' modules I have been building, but these will have a 2" foam top and weignt less than 25lbs with the built in fold up legs.

I don't know why I didn't build my layouts on modules years ago?...

hummmm...I guess it's because I didn't have a planer, a chopsaw, a radial arm saw, a 10" table saw, a 14" band saw, and a floor stand 12" drill press and the like.

If you want to have a wonderful excuse to buy some great tools, build a house! I did...
I guess that without these tools, a 4x8' piece of 3/4" ply can be so appealing...

Maybe later we can talk about the tools one needs to do these On30 mods...

I'm looking forward to getting back to the Bachmann On30 2-6-0 mods soon...Vance



P.S. If any of you don't follow the Yahoo On30 group, there has been quite a discussion about Bachmann and their cracked gears and other quality control issues...

I myself have posted a few thoughts in agreement... but I will say it here...That us model railroaders generally have the patience and skills to fix mostly anything that the model railroad manufacturers can throw at us...so bring it on! ....not really...I have enough to fix for the moment... 

The cool thing is with the internet, we can rapidly disseminate the things we learn worldwide ...so we don't have to spend so much time re-inventing the wheel, or the sand dome, or the upgraded gearing...

Vance

Bachmann On30 2-6-0 Mogul C&S #22

Before we get too much further down the road with re-detailing and modifying, I suppose that I should give you a link to the Denver Public Library. It shows most of what you need for this project. Bachmann did a pretty good job creating C&S #22 and then went on painting it for nearly every railroad you can imagine...

Take a look at C&S #22

http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/42202/rec/29

You can really enlarge these photos and see lots of details.You can also look at simular C&S 2-6-0s and get some more ideas...

more later...

P.S. #21 is the closest and #9 (which still exists) is close but has a tapered boiler

Here is a short video of #9 www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3OkwflQ3SM

And here are a couple pictures of C&S #9 a close cousin of #22...

After about 2 years... I am going to continue with my On30 Bachmann mogul saga... I hope to start with a brake cylinder mounting modification. It should look like the photo to the left.

Note that the outside edge of the cylinder sets slightly inside of the outer edge of the wheel, and the back of the cylinder sits flush against the chassis.

Looking at the model, it seems that we have some work to do...

So here below is the North Pole version of the Bachmann On30 Mogul. Because it's brightly colored, it's fairly easy to see what it is missing... Yeah...a lot....

I think the protruding tab on the bottom of the cab support can be removed, and even the water line can be replaced with a brass rod and reshaped more like the prototype.    

However...this is only a model. If it were exactly right, it would be mostly all steel and run on steam. But I think that we can get closer to the real deal... without too much trouble or money...

Look at how far the brake cylinders are from the chassis!  We are going to fix this!

Just in case you are wondering, I am going to wait to put things into a black color until after I am done modifying and photographing... so you can see what I am doing. The bright colors make the details stand out well.

Obviously, on the real C&S #22, the brake cylinders were not hanging out on the end of posts, but are firmly attached to the chassis.  So as this is a 30" guage loco rather than a 36" gauge loco as in the prototype, we need to do some creative engineering.

So if C&S modified a simular loco to 30" guage, how would they do it?   I would assume that they would have a new chassis built, re-guage the wheels, then adjust the running gear?

So if the difference between 30" gauge and 36" gauge is 6" that would be 3" of frame width per side or 1/16" in 1/48 scale per side. So engineers being what they are in both the real world and the scale world and a few things get forgotton in design (like on this model)...  maybe the brake cylinders need something like a 1/16" or .062" of  shim behind them. 

We just want the outside of the cylinder brake lever top to be closer to the outside of the rear wheel as in the top picture of #22.

I'll see what plastic I have and give it a shot.

I found my plastic--1/8" evergreen plastic tube.  I shortened the brake cylinder posts so that the cylinder fits as close as our spacer allows... without bottoming out in its mounting hole.  Now for pictures instead of a thousand words....note the notch in the side of the 1/8" tube section that allows it to fit around the rim of the cylinder...

Once this section of tube is super-glued to the cylinder, it can be painted and glued into the chassis. I am thinking about either notching the coverplate where the lower pin enters into it or cutting off the lower pin entirely... That way the cover plate is easily removable...( I like easily removable )

With the larger mounting area, the cylinder will be much more stable...

Just a note: I have noticed that when I add  the firebox sides that the top part of the spacer ring runs a foul of the fire box sides sitting completely level. So either the firebox side needs a small notch needs to be removed to clear the 1/8" spacer ring or the top of the spacer ring needs to be trimmed even with the cylinder mounting pin to clear the firebox side...

I still like this way much than better than the Bachmann way...

Hmmm... Made in China, rebuilt in the USA.

I'll finish up the other side and be back later. Cheers.

P.S. There is also a single pin brake cylinder version which is glued into the lower plate wheel retainer only. I don't have a lot of confidence in that arrangement and will endevor to make an overall better system for both variants as time permitts....

Other thoughts... Don't think that all On30 Bachmann 2-6-0 moguls are the same... There are differences in the chassis, brake cylinders, circuit boards and so forth as per the production run...but they are all pretty close....The Hawthorne Village variety seems to be exactly the same as the hobby store runs or train set runs just with different paint. (remove the paint with a 10+ hr soaking in 91% isopropyl alcohol )  Your mileage may vary...

I do think that the newer production runs are slightly better... more later...